All language subtitles for Ultimate Treasure Countdown Series 1 5of6 Egypts Mummies 1080p

Bettany: The
ancient egyptians.

They built great pyramids,
temples and tombs in life.

In a bid to become
immortal after death.

I am professor bettany hughes.

I'm a historian and I spend my
life traveling the world to

Investigate the stories
of the cultures and
civilizations of the past

And I love having the chance to
share what I found with you.

(theme music plays).

The valley of the kings.

Since tombs were
discovered centuries ago,

Mummies have
gripped our imagination.

Why do we find
them so fascinating?

These incredible mummified
remains tell us so much,

Not just about
death, but about life.

If you want to
understand the ancient world,

Who better to ask than
an ancient egyptian?

To begin my countdown,
at number 10,

Someone who died over 3,200
years ago and who lived as the

Most powerful man on earth.

The ancient egyptians
mummified their dead to give

Them eternal life, so they'd
be remembered for all time.

Certainly the case with
one almighty pharaoh.

This man, ramesses ii,
or ramesses the great,

Still holds court in cairo.

Egyptologist salima ikram
is helping me explore why he

Deserves to be
called the great.

So here he is, one of the
most powerful men that
ever lived, arguably.

Salima: Oh absolutely,
he's magnificent.

And he's really, he was an
imposing creature in life,

Because he's almost six foot
tall which was magnificently

Tall for an ancient egyptian
and what's really cool about

His, if you look at his
nose, it's been stuffed,

That's why it stands proud,
so there's a little bone in it

And lots of little seeds
because everyone else's

Nose has sort of
collapsed inward,

But it was a prominent feature
of ramesses the second's

Physiognomy and he was
really proud of his honker.

Bettany: And
tell me what else,

Because we know so much about
him from historical records,

From inscriptions,
what does this mummy
tell you about the man?

Salima: Well, poor
thing, I mean he lived
until he was almost 90.

He had horrible teeth, he
must have been suffering from

Abscesses and
various other things.

He had some arthritis; he had
a bit of stooping going on.

So he was not in very
tip-top physical condition,

But he did live longer
than almost any other ancient

Egyptian because most
people were dead by
the time they were 40.

Bettany: Across egypt
you'll find temples,

Monuments and
statues bearing the name,

And face, of
ramesses the great.

He almost certainly built
more than any other pharaoh.

This is the ramesseum,
and what this is actually
a mortuary temple,

So it's where ramesses the
great's body was mummified

Before it was taken to his tomb
in the valley of the kings.

In this valley of death,
ramesses ensured his

Achievements in life
were celebrated.

Ramesses the second came from
a great soldiering family and

He commemorated his
campaigns on these walls.

Here he is victorious,
on his chariot.

Mummies were one way of
securing immortality,

Majestic monuments another,
and just across the nile,

I want to show you one
of ramesses' most
fabulous projects.

This is the great
temple at karnak.

And you'd have made your
way in through these massive

Pylons, which are kind
of monumental gateways,

And actually give us
our word pylon today.

They're a fittingly grandiose
front door for what's

The largest ancient
religious site in the world,

Where the most impressive
architecture was commissioned

By ramesses the great...

And to really appreciate this,

I'm heading up for
the best view.

Where I've got special
access inside the monument.

Whenever I come to an
archaeological dig in egypt,

Then nearly always the men who
are there doing the skilled

And specialist work are from
just one village called qift,

Which is very close to here.

So qiftis have becomes the
kind of unofficial guardians

Of all egyptian heritage, and
there's one here in the temple.

He's here, I've
not met him before.

Hello! Are you mr farooq?

Mahmoud: Hi, good to see you.

Bettany: Oh, hello!
Lovely to meet you.

I'm great.
I'm great thank you.

This is mr farouk who's, I
think you're going to let me up.

Mahmoud: I let you go up.
I help you go up to the high.

Let's go now.

Bettany: Amazing. So, no one's
normally allowed up here.

But mr farouk has the key.

Mahmoud: I have
the key, of course.

Bettany: Just like his father,
and grandfather before him,

Mahmoud farouk is one of
the qufti guardians who look
after karnak's temples.

Wow!

This is, so this is
the original passage
up through there.

Mahmoud: That's part
of the wall cavern.

Bettany: Through the wall.

Yeah, it's a
little bit slippery.

Oh great, is that
daylight there?

These are the original
steps, it's fantastic!

It's a huge honor for me
to be allowed access to this

Incredible passageway, gouged
out over 2,500 years ago.

Mahmoud: Now we go to
the way to the top.

Bettany: Oh my gosh!

Mahmoud: You need a hand?

Bettany: No, well
I've just spotted the,

Oh my god, that's
making me feel weird.

Mahmoud: Please
come behind me.

Bettany: That's a
sheer drop down there.

Only about 60 meters or so.

This is amazing.

Mahmoud: You know you are the
first person from different

Than an egyptian to
come here for long time?

Bettany: I'm
genuinely honored.

This is incredible.

Mahmoud aims to
come here every day,

Lovingly restoring and caring
for this ancient temple,

With some of the same
techniques used by

Ramesses the great's workmen!

Mahmoud: I be honest
with you, I like here
more than my house.

Because I come here every day.

Bettany: Thank you, shukraan.

Mahmoud: I'm so
happy you are happy.

Good for me.

Bettany: Yeah, I'm
very, very happy indeed.

It's beautiful.
Truly beautiful.

Standing up here you really
get a sense of the scale of

Ramesses' achievements,
and why he was revered as

An all-powerful leader.

And down there, I want to show
you one of the reasons he's

Remembered as
ramesses the great today.

You know I was talking about
how ramesses was very involved

In international
campaigns and warfare,

There's a fantastic bit
of evidence for that here.

The writing on this wall
doesn't just record history,

It makes it.

Ramesses' archenemies were the
hittites and the two powers

Had huge battles that had
gone on and on for years and

Eventually they decided
to call it quits and there is

Evidence of that
here on this wall,

Which is arguably the world's
first ever peace treaty.

Creating this, ramesses
the great secured his
place in the history books.

A copy of this peace
treaty still hangs in the

United nations building
in new york today.

And even ramesses' mummy
itself has made history.

So this is an
incredible thing.

Ramesses ii has a passport
and travelled to France

In the 70's, wasn't it?

Salima: Yes, in about '77 he
went off because he had grown

Some kind of mould, which
couldn't be treated here.

And so he was
issued with a passport,

'occupation: King,
comma, deceased'

Bettany: Amazing.
Yeah, isn't that great.

Sorry, but that is the best
occupation on a passport,

'king, deceased'.

And that must make him the
oldest human in the world to

Have been issued
with a passport.

Salima: Oh absolutely, he is
the best travelled pharaoh and

Perhaps, apart
from tutankhamun,

One of the most famous.

Bettany: Ramesses the great in
the ancient world and pretty

Great in the
modern world too...

Salima: Oh absolutely.

Bettany: This is one
of our treasures

Because this pharaoh and
his passport reminds us,

And it's really, really
critical to remember this,

These are real
people with real lives.

And in the case of
ramesses the second,

With remarkable lifetimes.

He was a
celebrity in his own day,

He's become a celebrity
now, and his life
changed history itself.

Next, I explore the most
extravagant funeral home in

History, fit for the most
beautiful mummy in the world.

In cairo there's an
extraordinary character who

Helps us understand tons about
how the ancient egyptians

Mummified their dead, and why
they went to all that trouble!

Beautiful ancient
egyptians in existence,

Seti the first.

He's number 9 in our
countdown of egyptian mummies.

Seti the first was the father of
our friend ramesses the great.

Just like his son, he was a
hugely successful pharaoh.

But in father-son rivalry
there's one category where he

Wins hands down...

His mummy.

Because seti the first
boasts some of the finest

Mummification work in all
of ancient egyptian history.

Mummification is an incredible
process of drying out and

Embalming the
body to preserve it,

Ready for its journey to
immortality in the afterlife.

Key to it all was the
preparation of the body.

Typically your brain is pulled
out through your nostrils with

An iron hook.

Next, all of your
major organs are removed,

Apart from the heart, ancient
egyptians believed this was

The centre of your being.

These organs are then
preserved in special jars so

They can be reunited with
their owner in the afterlife.

Your body is then covered in a
salt called natron and left to

Dry for up to 40 days.

Finally the now mummified body
is wrapped head to foot in

Hundreds of meters
of linen bandages,

Attached with a glue, and
magical spells are cast to

Protect the mummy and
prepare it for safe
arrival in the afterlife.

But seti's mummy is unusual.

His face is
incredibly well preserved;

He looks almost perfect, not
what you might expect from a

Body over 3,000 years old!

But frankly, seti's had
quite a lot of work done.

Unlocking the secrets behind
seti's youthful good looks is

Professor of
radiology sahar saleem.

Sahar: I always looked
at his mummy and I said,

'this is no mummy.
This is a sleeping beauty.'

I've always wondered
what was his secret.

The secrets revealed to me
that the ancient egyptians

Were very efficient
as plastic surgeons.

Bettany: So, was it
really plastic surgery?

Sahar: Yeah, and they actually
placed fillers around the nose

And the mouth, in this
region, in the cheeks,

And even in the temporal.

Bettany: What does this
tell you about their ideas of

Ancient beauty?

For men as well as for women.

Sahar: The ancient
egyptian would like to
look like his gods.

Bettany: There is
something very,

Very charismatic about him.

Sahar: He was the most
well-mummified person from

Ancient egypt that
I've ever looked at.

Bettany: I love the
way you talk about him.

I bet you wish you'd met him.

Sahar: Definitely.
We will meet one day.

Bettany: In the afterlife!
Brilliant, brilliant.

Well good luck.

Egyptians beautified seti's
mummy to make sure it was

In the best possible shape
to travel to the afterlife.

Once there, seti would
need a stunning home
for all eternity.

So I've come to the valley
of the kings near luxor.

Hidden within this rocky
landscape are the tombs of the

Most famous pharaohs
in egyptian history.

Now I want to show you
seti's, because quite frankly,

It is pretty mind blowing.

And it also holds clues
to the story of his mummy,

Which was nearly lost forever.

For over 1,000 years, ancient
egyptian pharaohs had built

Massive tombs to house
their mummified remains,

In preparation for their
journey to the afterlife.

Now, they didn't just believe
that they were living on as

Humans, but as almighty gods,
so rival pharaohs would build

Evermore-magnificent tombs to
try to outdo their predecessors.

Morning, morning, morning,

Ah shukraan, is it
ok to come in here?

Thank you, shukraan.

With over 170 meters of
corridors and chambers,

Seti's mummy's
tomb is one of the longest,

And to be honest
the most splendid,

In the whole valley...

Oh my goodness, I just love
this place because it goes on

And on and on and every
single surface is decorated,

And each one of these pictures
tell us what seti the first,

And actually all
of our mummies,

Believed happened to them in
their journey to the afterlife.

The egyptians believed that
the afterlife was a real,

Physical place, and that the
dead pharaoh would live near

These tombs as if they
were royal palaces.

Built to ensure a peaceful
journey for the mummy to
the afterlife,

In fact this is a massive
target for tomb-raiders.

Originally there was a
beautiful sarcophagus here,

But the rest of this
incredible chamber was empty,

Because all of its treasure
and seti's mummy itself
had been robbed.

For over 3,000 years, the
whereabouts of seti's mummy

Remained a mystery.

And as time passed
seti's beautiful mummy
was slowly forgotten.

But then, in 1881, a discovery
near the valley of the kings

Changed everything.

Looking for treasure, a local
tomb raider stumbled across a

Deep pit on a
remote cliff face.

What he found inside
took his breath away,

A secret cache of
over 40 mummies,

All carefully labelled.

This mystery store was
the work of ancient
egyptian high priests.

They noticed that robbers were
raiding the tombs and that

They were taking not just
treasures but actual bodies.

Now, this really,
really troubled him,

Because for him this
wasn't just robbing,

This was desecration.

The priests master-minded
a high risk mission,

To rescue the
mummies of great pharaohs.

So what you have here is a roll
call of ancient egyptian power,

Ramesses the great,
ramesses the third,

And the magnificent
mummy of seti the first.

It's hard to get your head
round the scale of this task.

So they were
stealing into each tomb,

Rescuing the mummy, bringing
them here in secret and then

Lowering them down
into that shaft,

Where they stayed
undisturbed for 3,000 years.

Without the ancient
high priests' foresight,

And the efforts of one
very fortunate tomb raider,

Seti's mummy could have
vanished from history.

Seti the first deserves to
be on our list of egypt's

Greatest mummies, partly
because he is such a fine

Example of preservation, but
also because he reminds us

Why mummification matters.

It helps us to understand
what mattered to them

Philosophically, because
for men like seti the first,

Death wasn't the end, but
the beginning of a better,

Brighter, more beautiful life.

Coming up, egypt's
best kept secret.

We discover a
long-forgotten pharaoh
hidden deep in the desert.

Bye. See you again, I hope.

A mummy with a
truly remarkable story.

The hunt for this individual
inspired a blockbuster

Hollywood film and his
identity remained an unsolved

Mystery until 1939.

I've come to investigate.

And here he is, the man who
held onto his secrets for

3,000 years, and who helped to
inspire me to be a historian.

To unpack the tale of our
mystery mummy number 8

I'm heading deep into
the nile delta.

When I was a teenager
I went to see the film
raiders of the lost ark,

And it had a huge
influence on me.

Basically, I wanted
to be indiana jones,

Discovering lost
tombs, and treasures,

And cities and bouncing
through the desert on the

Back of a pickup truck.

What I didn't realize then is
that the film was based on a

Real sequence of events that
happened where I am heading

Now, indiana jones'
lost city of tanis.

And just like in
raiders of the lost ark,

Our tale unfolds as the
world is torn apart by
the second world war.

So the nazis had their
part to play in keeping
this mummy a secret!

The story starts in 1929, when
archaeologist pierre montet,

Our hero, comes here
and starts digging.

And he doesn't stop
digging for 10 years.

The expedition was searching
for the tombs and the lost

City of tanis, a kind of
mystical place described in

The bible as zoan.

Around the 11th century bce,
the pharaohs had built a new

Capital city and
harbor in the north,

Which they called tanis.

But over time the
course of the nile changed,

The river silted up,
and the city of tanis,

Its tombs and mummies
were abandoned to the sands.

Montet suspected that the
ancient city was hidden

Somewhere in the area.

For 10 years, montet and his
team dug through five meters

Of sand and dirt until they
struck archaeological gold.

In early 1939, montet found an
entrance to what he believed

To be the long-lost royal
tombs of the tanis pharaohs,

A forgotten place where
few people come these days.

Hey, morning,
sallahe, sallahe.

Ezzaj: Welcome.
Bettany: Thank you.

You've got the key, do you?

Ezzaj: Yes. Here.

Bettany: Great.

Tomb guardian ezzaj
arief has agreed to open up.

Ezzaj: Ok.

Bettany: Shukraan, thank you.

Bye, see you again.

I hope.

I'm very glad I've
got my boots on,

Because you have to be
careful of snakes down
here, apparently.

So, when they got down,
this entrance was blocked

By a limestone wall,
but they managed to
make their way through.

This is absolutely petrifying.

But I think it's
going to be worth it.

Montet and his team dug until
finally they broke through

Into a royal chamber.

To their dismay they
found it had been
cleared out by robbers.

But instead of giving up,
montet kept digging.

For three weeks, he
cleared his way through
walls and passageways,

Until eventually he
discovered a hidden chamber.

You've got to think how
exciting this would have been,

Because this was the first
time that anybody had been

Down here for 3,000 years.

And what he came across
stopped him in his tracks.

What they discovered
here was the intact
chamber of a pharaoh.

Now, this is really, really
rare because usually the

Tombs had been robbed.

Not only that, but this room
was packed with silver and

Gold, and with hieroglyphs
and decorations on every wall.

Montet had struck
archaeological gold.

It would prove to be as
life-changing a haul as the

Famous discovery of
tutankhamun in 1922.

Right in the centre of
this room was a huge
solid silver coffin.

Now silver was even
more precious than
gold in ancient egypt.

But who was the mysterious
occupant who lay inside?

When he opened the coffin,
he saw a gold mask and

Breath-taking
jewelry, fit for a king.

It's little surprise that
montet described this as,

'a day of marvels'.

But what he didn't realize
was that he'd stumbled upon a

Forgotten pharaoh,
sheshonq the second.

The inscriptions inside the
coffin revealed that he had

Discovered a pharaoh that no
one had ever heard of before.

This unknown pharaoh
is our mummy number 8,

Erased from history
for nearly 3,000 years.

But unlike the discovery
of tutankhamun's tomb,

There was no international
fanfare for the opening
of shoshenq's.

At the very time montet was
unearthing his extraordinary

Find, the nazis were
invading czechoslovakia.

And six months later,
in September 1939,

Britain declared
war on germany.

Montet's discovery was totally
overshadowed by the outbreak

Of the second world war.

Luckily, shoshenq and his tomb
of treasures weren't raided by

Tomb robbers, or nazis.

So I can still stand face
to face with them here,

At the egyptian
museum in cairo.

So, because of the
conditions in the nile delta,

Which are really humid, the
mummy of shoshenq the second

Is in a very fragile state.

Basically, all that's left
inside here is a skeleton,

But it's not a
bad coffin, is it?

This is made of silver, and
it's in the shape of horus,

That great hawk-headed god.

Our forgotten pharaoh was
buried with these four mini

Silver coffins, containing
his internal organs.

This meant that when shoshenq
the second reached the next

World, he could be put back
together by magic and enter

The afterlife complete.

There's only one parallel for
these mini coffins: The four

Gold ones found
with tutankhamun.

With a solid silver
coffin and dazzling jewelry,

Some of which could
rival that of tutankhamun,

Shoshenq the second
was clearly a force
to be reckoned with.

Shoshenq the second is a
worthy candidate for our list,

Because his story has
inspired countless

Adventurers and archaeologists.

And his discovery proves that
history and archaeology never

Stand still, but there are
always new finds to be had.

Bettany: The magnificent
great pyramid of giza.

It's over 4,500 years old
and was built as a giant
tomb for a pharaoh.

But my next mummy,
wait for it,

Actually pre-dates the
great pyramid by 1,000 years!

At number 7 on our countdown,
we have an amazing discovery

From southern egypt, with
a few surprises in store.

But, you won't find this
extraordinary mummy in egypt.

To track it down, I'm heading
to the british museum in

London, home to one of the
largest collections of ancient

Egyptian mummies in the world.

Let me introduce
you to gebelein man.

He's named after the
place he comes from in egypt,

Just south of luxor.

And he has the most
remarkable life story.

Gebelein man takes us right
back to the very start of

Egyptian mummification.

And not only that, a recent
discovery puts him at the

Centre of a murder mystery,

A mystery that goes
back to the stone age.

Curator daniel antoine
has been unlocking his

Extraordinary story.

When people think of mummies,
I think they often imagine

Them wrapped in bandages and
lying straight out with their

Arms crossed
over their chests.

And he's incredible, but
he's very different to that.

Daniel: He's quite unique.

There are very few of these
so-called natural mummies,

And the reason he's preserved
is because he was buried in a

Shallow pit and the heat
of the sun could get to his

Remains and he's preserved with
his internal organs intact.

Bettany: The searingly hot
conditions in the desert dried

Out and mummified
gebelein man's body,

Making him a 'natural' mummy.

So, do we know how old he is?

Daniel: We actually did
some radio carbon dating,

Using a tiny
fragment of his hair,

That suggests that
he's about 5,300 years old,

Making him one of the
oldest mummies in the world.

Bettany: That's unbelievable.

But the state of
preservation is incredible.

I mean, I can see his
hair and a little bit
of stubble on his chin.

Daniel: It just suggests that
the heat of the desert must

Have been really intense,
because there's no evidence as

Far as we can see of
artificial mummification

Bettany: Archaeologists
believe that gebelein man was

Mummified by accident, and
when the ancient egyptians

Found natural
mummies like his,

They were gradually
inspired to experiment with

Mummification on purpose.

The process of deliberate
mummification finally took off

Seven centuries after
our gebelein man died.

I've got to ask you
about his position.

Daniel: You're right,
it's quite unusual.

But it's typical
of that period.

Bettany: As the ancient
egyptians experimented with

Their mummification techniques,

They realized that laying the
body out straight and wrapping

It in linen bandages
guaranteed an incredible

Level of preservation.

But gebelein man doesn't only
take us back to the very start

Of egyptian mummification,

He also has a
sinister story to tell.

When daniel examined
gebelein man's mummy,

He spotted something unusual
on his left shoulder blade.

So he decided to
ct scan the body,

To find out more.

From these scans, daniel
has managed to piece together

Shocking clues to gebelein
man's traumatic final moments.

Daniel: You can see that cut
goes into the muscle tissue.

Bettany: Wow, it's an actual
incision of some kind, is it?

There's something, there's a
blunt or a sharp object has

Actually gone into his back?

Daniel: Absolutely.
And you can see, if you
look at the skeleton,

The shoulder blade here,
you can see is completely

Shattered into fragments
compared to the other side.

Bettany: Yes.

That is terrible to
see, so what is it,

Because that's hit
him with real force.

The scan results suggest
gebelein man was the victim of

A violent attack...

Daniel: It's most probably a
dagger that's gone straight in

A downwards angle
through his shoulder blade.

It would have
collapsed the lung,

Maybe cut one of the smaller
arteries in the area and

Probably he died
over one or two days.

Bettany: Right. So it's
a really violent death.

I mean, are there any signs that
he tried to defend himself?

That it was a
fight of some kind?

Daniel: That's
what's interesting,

There's, there's no
defensive wounds.

He appears to have
never seen it coming.

Bettany: Since gebelein man
was stabbed in the back and

Didn't try to fight back, it
looks like he was ambushed.

That is tragic.

Daniel: And what's also
interesting is you can see

That his bones are in
the process of fusing.

Bettany: Yes.

Daniel: So he was actually
a young man when he died.

Bettany: Gebelein man would only
have been about 20 years old

When his life ended...

Daniel: It was only when we ct
scanned him that we realized

That we had the
victim of a crime.

Bettany: So it's the
technology of the future

Giving us back his past.

But as amazing as this 5,000
year old murder investigation

Is, the story
doesn't stop there.

A truly remarkable
individual, gebelein woman,

Was discovered
at the same site.

So she's also over
5,000 years old.

And now modern technology
is allowing us to piece
together her story.

It is remarkable
being this close to her.

You can see, that she's
got a thick head of hair,

These beautiful little
fingernails on the end of

Those very, very
fine fingers of hers.

Daniel: Yeah.

What's incredible is she's
still revealing secrets.

These dark smudges on her arm,
which are very hard to see,

Are actually tattoos.

Bettany: Tattoos?
All I can see is a smudge.

Daniel: Because
they're hard to see,

We need to use an
infrared camera really.

Bettany: So we're looking
at the top of her shoulder?

Daniel: Yeah.

You can see that, so
there's two lots of tattoos.

There's a series of...

Bettany: Oh my god.
They've just come into focus.

That's amazing.
That's amazing.

So it's four, four 's's.

This must be very
early evidence of
tattooing, isn't it?

Daniel: Well gebelein woman
is the oldest known tattooed

Woman in the world.

So it's quite special.

She's very, very special.

Bettany: I mean it's so clear,

And presumably this is more
what it would have looked like

When she was alive.

So you've got this
curved stave and those 's's.

What are they for,
what do you think?

Daniel: So these are
actually symbols of
high status, we think.

Bettany: It's quite rare to
find strong women in history.

So that is pretty cool that
she's the oldest tattooed

Woman and you think that
shows her power and standing.

Gebelein man and woman might
be amongst the oldest mummies

In the world, but now these
scans reveal that murder,

Conflict and female
empowerment aren't just modern

Phenomena, they were
there in pre-history too.

These bodies were
preserved naturally.

But they almost certainly gave
ancient egyptians the idea to

Mummify deliberately, which
has left us with the most

Incredible historical legacy.

But more than that, I
think this wonderful woman

Encourages us to respect
and cherish her today.

My next mummy reveals that the
ancient egyptians didn't just

Mummify humans,
but animals too.

At number 6 on our countdown
we have the hawk mummy,

Who's been hiding a shocking
secret for 2,000 years.

And it is only with a
recent discovery that the

Extraordinary truth
has been revealed.

And to unlock this mummy's
story I'm heading somewhere

Super-special: Ancient
egypt's city of the dead...

Saqqara!

For thousands of years
this place was used as
a burial ground.

And I've just heard that one
of the underground catacombs

Is being opened up,
so I'm heading there.

The entrance to this catacomb
has been blocked up since 1970

To protect it
from tomb raiders,

But I've been allowed to
witness its opening...

It's just so special to see
this because this is how every

Tomb and catacomb has been
raided and robbed and entered

For thousands of years in the
ancient world and the modern.

It's amazing.

I didn't think I'd
ever get to see this.

It's amazing.

And inspector doctor ahmed
zekry is here to open up this

Tomb, sealed for
the last 50 years.

Many of saqqara's tunnels
have never been explored;

In the past, people
have got lost down here,

So I've got to
stick close to hashim.

Wow. It's hot.

It gets really hot down
here and it's pretty close.

It hasn't been open for years.

Oh, look at this.
Look at this.

I'd no idea that we'd get
access to the chambers
with so many in.

So each one of these
pots that you see,

That contains a
mummified bird.

And apparently there
could be millions of them,

Just here, just in
this catacomb alone.

Is it ok, can we get
down here, hashim?

What have you found?

Yeah.

Oh, that's incredible.

That's so incredible.

So the mummies have still
got their wrappings on.

Yeah.

Every single mummy mattered.

Each one was left with the
hope its owner would win

Favor with the gods...

What? Oh my god.

It's a perfect hawk's head.

Look at, you can see the beak
and the eyes and this kind of

Decoration on the
mummification bandages.

That's incredible.

That is a find I am not
going to forget for the
rest of my life.

Caused a sensation in europe.

To satisfy 'mummy mania',
souvenir hunters imported,

And smuggled mummy
remains to britain.

Eventually, our hawk mummy found
its way to maidstone museum.

And when curator samantha
harris decided to scan it

She had a shock in store...

Hi, hi, are you sam? Bettany.

Samantha: Yes.
Hi, nice to meet you.

Bettany: That looks
to me like a hawk,

Like a falcon of some kind.

Samantha: Absolutely.

So we have it documented as
a mummified hawk and that is

Because you've got the very
iconic falcon eyes here and

The shape of it is
very much bird-like.

So with the wider shoulders
and the narrower feet this is

Very much the kind of hawk
shape you see in mummies.

Bettany: So lovely
this gold decoration.

What clues does the
surface give you?

Samantha: There's detail of
what look like feet with gold

Painted toenails and on the
base as well actually what

Looks like the
bottom of sandals.

Bettany: So it
does, so that's odd.

Samantha: It's a very weird
combination to be seeing in

This kind of
cartonnage as well.

Bettany: Can you
see the mummy itself?

Samantha: Yes. You can still
see the wrapped mummy here.

So in good condition.

Bettany: Beautiful.

I mean that's
beautifully done.

Can we scan it?

Samantha: Oh absolutely.

Bettany: Chris price has
kindly agreed to scan our hawk

Mummy with the very latest ct
tech to show me what's inside

Chris: So, if I start to
strip off the outer linen,

You start to see what's inside.

Bettany: But that
looks like a... Hand.

I mean, it's got hands!

And feet.

I mean, that is not a bird.

And this became even
clearer, as I started to
look at the 3d images.

You've got to explain
what's happening here,

Because that looks like
that was a human inside there.

Samantha: Exactly.

We're expecting very much
to see a bird coming
through in the scans.

And straight away, it
became very clear that
it was not a hawk.

We can see
there's crossed hands,

And arms across
the body there.

That's very much a human
mummification position.

Bettany: Absolutely.

Samantha: So the
conclusion was come to
that it was a human baby.

Bettany: A baby, look at that.

Is it a he or a she?
Do you know?

Yeah. We've relatively
recently found that it
is most probably male.

Right.

It's so touching, isn't it?

So after 2,000 years plus,

He's been lying there,

Nobody knew his story.

It's hard to believe that
this 'hawk mummy' actually

Concealed a tiny baby.

I've never seen anything
like this in all my years
as a historian.

So I've come to the university
of cairo to find out more,

To see if my old friend
radiologist sahar saleem can

Help unravel the mystery.

An amazing team including
professor andrew nelson from

The university of western
ontario has been working hard

To piece together this story.

Sahar: The striking thing is
when you look at the skull.

You can see this is where the
eyes are and this is the nose,

This is the profile.

But there is absent of the
skull above the eyebrow.

So the medical term is
anencephaly or there's no skull.

This is a very well-known
deformity that must have

Happened very early during
the development of the fetus.

Bettany: So is this a condition
that you'd still see today?

Sahar: Yes. Absolutely.
We still see it today.

From the way that
the bones developed,

It was likely 27 weeks,

That'd be seven months of
pregnancy when he died.

Bettany: So even though
this child is miscarried,

They're treating him
with respect and with love.

Sahar: And they want him
to be among them in the life

After, so they want him
as a part of the family.

There are very few mummified
fetuses that we know.

There are about eight, so
this guy is a special one.

Bettany: The ancient egyptians
believed that the soul was

Created in the womb
as the baby developed,

So this child
could be reunited,

Body and soul, with his
family in the afterlife.

This little mummy tells us
so much about the ancient

Egyptian worldview where there
was less of a distinction

Between gods and
humans and animals.

But it also tells us
about pain and loss.

This little baby
didn't survive birth,

But he was given wings so he
could fly to the afterlife.

Next time, I'll be counting
down my final 5 as we reveal

My number 1 egyptian mummy.

Err, wish me luck.

Captioned by cotter
captioning services.